This is your life - John Henry Duncan Wallace

 
John Wallace - Actor, Dancer, Choreographer, Comedian and Stage Manager

John Wallace was my 2x great-grandfather. I have verified this with genetic genealogy and social (paper trail) genealogical methods.

Below is the story of his life.

John Henry Duncan Wallace is the name by which I knew my gt-gt grandfather when I began my research many years ago. He was an actor, I knew that much and his name matched the grandeur, but the family stories were a different matter.

John Henry Duncan Wallace
Actor, comedian and stage director

John "Johnny" Wallace was actually John Henry Duncan Clark, yes Clark, not Wallace, but still a pretty grand name to give the baby, born in Balls Pond Islington, London England in the year 1841. His parents were Frederick Clark and Olive nee' Silverton.

Frederick was a shoemaker by trade, at least he was when John was a boy. Later he went to work as a Hall Porter at the Pavillion Theatre and then worked as a Nightwatchman though I can't say where. John also lists his father's occupation in later documents as Gentleman and Landowner! I think John was putting on the airs and graces!

 Fred and Olive had at least four other children, Olive, two Fredericks (the first dying as a baby) and Wallace Alfred Clark.

Wallace plied himself to the craft of acting and switched his names around for presumably a more theatrical name and he became Alfred Wallace leading people to think he was Scottish!

I guess that John saw his brother having fun at this acting gig and thought it was worth a try. He started working at the theatre at age 10 as a utility boy. But it wouldn't be long before he would find his way on stage for something other than arranging the props! He once said in an interview that in 1862 "I made the stage my profession".

As a young aspiring actor, John at age 22 took a wife, Miss Eliza Berwick Harris, daughter of Henry Harris.... a shoemaker! John’s marriage certificate declares his father Frederick to be an actor too, truth or fiction, or wishful thinking?

Eliza bore John four daughters between 1864 and 1872. Their daughters' names were Alice Rosina, Lizzie Florence, Emily Ada and Minnie Olive Clark. The girls were not very sturdy lasses though. Emily Ada died from convulsions as a baby aged 1 in 1869, Lizzie died from TB in 1888 age 21, and Minnie also died from TB in 1890 aged 18. Only their firstborn, Alice, made it past 21.  

Whilst Eliza was tending to her children, John had changed his name and was off working in the theatre. Eliza said he was dead, and perhaps he was...to her! 

John as Bambini
in "La Fille du Tambour Major"

Around 1874, John met 19 yr old Julia Barber and they worked together on stage with the Emily Soldene troupe and travelled the world together as Mr and Mrs Wallace. They travelled extensively between America, Australia and England. Julia was a chorine and an actress, and John was an actor, dancer, comedian and stage manager.

Although they never officially married (I suspect to avoid bigamy) John and Julia produced 4 children during their travels back and forth between Australia and England.  Frederick John (1878), Julia Olive (1880), Alfred Victor (1882) and Grace Isabel (1883).

Julia left John shortly after Grace, seemingly leaving all the children behind (ages 6,4,2 and 1). 

When Julia left she ran into the waiting arms of Edwin Stidolph (aka Ted Faust) of the Faust Family of acrobats who were performing with Chiarini's Circus. (See separate post about her life).

The youngest of John and Julia's children, Grace, was a factory hand and died of TB in the Alfred Hospital Melbourne, in 1902, aged 19. She was buried in a paupers grave in the Quaker section of the Melbourne Cemetery. By this stage, John was in Sydney and Julia was long gone to America.

John had lost 3 daughters and a brother to TB.

John remarried in 1890 to Sarah Louise Stretton another young actress, saying he was a widower. 

But not so! Eliza, wife No.1,  was alive and well back in England, and still describing herself as a play actor's wife. Around that time though, in 1890, she too remarried claiming herself a widow, so perhaps they came to a mutual agreement. They were, after all, living worlds apart. Either way, they were obviously a bit loose with the truth.

Anyway, young actress Sarah Stretton, seemed to have disappeared from the scene shortly after their marriage, but John continued on without her.

John fathered a daughter to actress Winifred Reece in 1892 and married Winifred in 1897, saying he was, once again, a widower. Then in 1901, Sarah was back on the scene with claims of desertion. John went to court and told the judge that he had left her many years ago as she had a problem with the drink and that he had found her first husband alive and well and returned her to him. He conveniently declared his marriage null and void, which of course allowed him to marry Winifred! Nothing was declared of his own bigamy!

It seems John, Winifred and their daughter Leslie were happy for a while, living in Fitzroy, Victoria. But in 1909 tragedy struck. Winifred was at a friend's house and took a drink of port wine, and feeling unwell laid down and went to sleep only to suffocate during the night. Daughter and husband grieved for their loss and memorial notices can be seen in the paper for years afterwards. It was those memorials that alerted me to the fact that Winifred went by the stage name Miss Linda Henry. I have subsequently found many articles of her performing alongside John, and she seems to have taken his name as Mrs J. Wallace the minute she arrived in Sydney, many years before they were legally married. Winifred is buried in Melbourne General Cemetery. 

John continued to act and work in the theatre even up to the age of 80 years. The following I found in my collection today, advertising his show for Easter Saturday 1921, almost exactly 100 years ago, today is Easter Saturday 2021!

He worked with many amateur operatic companies in his 80s, honing their talents and polishing their performances as an able instructor.

This is the last of the articles that I found on his performances and productions, until his death in 1934. 

On his passing, there was a long article listing his many career achievements.

In his senior years, he was looked after by his few surviving children, but in his obituary not one word of any family. Not one of his 9 children or his 4 wifely partnerships got a mention anywhere. What a shame it was. 

John is buried in Rookwood cemetery and was for a long time buried beneath a vacant patch of grass. Since then with the help of legendary Theatrical author Kurt Ganzl we have managed a small memorial plaque to a man brilliant within his chosen field.

Author's Note - For many years I had only one photo and some small inkling about a couple of shows he had done. It was thanks to AncestryDNA, a small tree of my American cousin, and largely to the blog and books of Kurt Ganzl that my research efforts were renewed, which led to all of the information listed herein. Thanks must go to Kurt Ganzl for his generosity in gifting me his books and a very generous donation toward the above plaque, and to my cousin Judy for the DNA testing which led me to many discoveries.

I have a great deal more specific information about John Wallace's theatrical exploits if anyone cares to ask me, but for now, that's a wrap....exit stage right!

Other Resources

http://operetta-research-center.org/memorial-j-d-wallace-man-turned-belle-new-york-biggest-hit-era/